31 Opposites of Liberal

John Spacey, December 25, 2020 updated on January 15, 2021

Liberal is a political philosophy that values rights and freedoms. This often includes strong support for individualism, capitalism, democracy, secularism, free markets, free trade and globalization. The opposite of liberal includes those who have other political priorities and views such as stability, tradition and religion. Liberal is also the opposite of socialism that calls for collectivism. The following are common antonyms of liberal.

authoritarian	autocratic
collectivist	communist
conservative	conventional
despotic	dictatorial
draconian	ethnocentric
fundamentalist	illiberal
imperialistic	isolationist
leninist	marxist
megalomaniac	nationalistic
old guard	old-fashioned
orthodox	paternalistic
prescriptive	puritanical
reactionary	rightist
socialist	totalitarian
traditionalist	undemocratic
xenophobic

Notes

Paternalism is the tendency for states to regulate every aspect of life such that freedom is diminished. It is common for parties and governments that are heavily paternalistic to mislabel themselves liberal.

Progressives may support both the expansion and removal of rights and freedoms. As such, progressive isn't synonymous with liberal. For example, historically American progressives pushed for Prohibition that took away the freedom to consume alcohol.

Socialism is collectivist and calls for the removal of economic freedoms but is often mislabeled liberal.

An individual could be consistently both conservative and liberal. Conservatives seek stability. If a society is already liberal, than stability could be liberal.

The most direct antonyms of liberal are illiberal, authoritarian, paternalistic and collectivist.

Depending on the time and place, the term "liberal" gets attached to a large number of positions that may have nothing to do with liberal values or that are actively opposed to liberal values that revolve around the freedom of the individual to pursue happiness as they see it.

31 Opposites of Liberal

Notes

Politics

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